Lagos rice farmers record high yields

Ise village, largest rice growing community in Lagos State, this month commenced harvest of rice with remarkable improvement in yields compared with previous years.

The villagers attribute the increases in yields and sales to interventions by the Lagos State Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP). Tunde Kareem, president of rice farmers in Ise, expressing his happiness, said he had increased his own individual cultivation to five hectares this year from three hectares last year, saying the provision of a road linking the community to a major road had boosted the sales of rice generally. “Before the provision of road by CADP, we used to take the rice to the Aiyetoro Market in Epe and get underpriced. Because it would cost us money to bring the rice back, we were forced to sell. But now buyers come in regularly because there is now a good link road. Now, we can negotiate better prices for the Ofada rice,” he said.

Explaining the planting operations, he said: “We started in April with the preparation of the land, we harvest in three or four months to coincide with the August break in rainfall. Women and youths do the harvesting for farmers. Each one takes what they harvest to the farmer’s store in the village and it is divided into four equal parts. The harvester gets one part as payment and the farmers gets three parts.

“Most people then dry and thresh their rice before selling. Before now, we did not do accounts but with the training given by CADP, we now know how to determine our profitability. We were provided with chain saws for clearing land instead of axe, and outboard engines to power boats to get to the islands we farm. We sell a 50kg of milled Ofada rice now for N14,000. We used to be forced to sell then for lower N10,000, yet it is sold in the market for about N18,000 per 50kg bag by marketers.

“Before the intervention by CADP, some farmers get paid for rice by marketers and that is what the farmer would use for the farming operations. In return, the farmer is forced to hand over the rice to the marketer at very low rates. Since farmers are now doing better in terms of production and sales because of the interventions, more people are going into farming. Therefore, we assure anyone who wants Ofada rice to come to Ise in Ibeju Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State. We know that rice gets a bit scarce at the beginning of the planting season because currently we can only plant to coincide with periods of rainfall, since we have not started irrigation farming. But we can assure people that at the harvest season rice is in abundance.”

Amope Alausa, one of the women who harvests, also urged buyers to come to Ise town as rice was now available in large quantities, saying “we expect more buyers because we have a bumper harvest and there is now motorable road provided by the sate government.”

Ariyalo Gbokoyi, another female harvester, said “I believe the bumper harvest is due to the training farmers are receiving from CADP.”

Moruf Kareem, a male youth, said “I have been harvesting rice for farmers since I was in primary school. Since there is now a link road and support for farmers in terms of technologies and inputs and greater yields as a result, my desire is to start my own farm in the very near future.”

Kehinde Ogunyinka, Lagos CADP project co-ordinator, at the official flag off of the rice harvesting at Ise village, said “CADP supported the rice farmers with new technologies and inputs, such as chain saws in land clearing and outboard engines to power their boats.” This is to enable them get to the islands where majority of them have rice farms.

He added that “we provide them with improved seeds, fertilisers, agro chemicals and so on. There is improvement as a result. Some of them who previously planted one or two hectares averagely now plant three or four hectares or more.”

He further said the “Lagos CADP has also intervened in the socio-economic life of the people by constructing a road to the community. We found out that the lack of road was a major hindrance to patronage of the rice produced. The 3.5km road has brought increase in patronage as buyers can easily access the community now. A good number of farmers who abandoned farming came back to the field as a result of the road. All these have led to increased yields and the farmers have begun to smile.”

Afolabi Bamidele Victor, the CADP agric productivity and advisory services officer, said at the occasion, “Ise is a major rice producing area but many of them gave up farming, but based on the interventions by CADP they returned and more are still coming back. The results are already obvious judging by the bumper harvest, so we thank the World Bank, the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Lagos State government.”

CADP is a World Bank assisted project with the Federal Government as guarantor and counterpart funding provided by each of the five participating state governments in Nigeria, Lagos being one of them.